Mushroom farmers call for credit facilities

Mushroom farmers in the country are making a passionate appeal to the government to grant them credit facilities to assist them in their mushroom farming business. According to the farmers, their call arises out of the fact that they don’t stand to benefit from government’s massive reduction in fertilizer prices and are thus not expecting the government to provide them with the subsidized fertilizers or extension officers among others. Their main demand, they argue is adequate capital to improve upon their businesses.

The call was made on Wednesday morning by Mr. John Kyikyea, a mushroom farmer based in Aburi-Ahwerase in the Akuapim South district of the Eastern region when he spoke to Krobea Asante on the Akuafo Sesen segment of the Rite Morning Ride.

Mr. Kyikyea is thus calling on the government to support them with credit facilities in terms of loans to enable them expand their farms and employ more hands since the worth of mushroom is comparable to that of cocoa.

The mushroom farmer who has gained five years in the business identified mushroom growing as another booming agribusiness that can create more jobs if given the needed attention in the agricultural sector as do the other types of farming. This, he adds is because mushroom production does not require any huge amount of money as a start up capital.

He further noted that mushroom farming is another fetching business which needs immediate recognition in the agricultural sector for expansion and creation of jobs.

‘Mushroom business also makes room for a lot of people to be employed to work on mushroom farms in order to curtail the menace of unemployment which has become a headache especially for the youth since it does not require much money to start up with,’ Mr. Kyikyea observed.

He also took the opportunity encourage the youth to venture into mushroom farming as a lifetime business.